Programs

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Programs

“My home is really chaotic and I used to get stressed as soon as I stepped in the door. Thanks to the teachings, the minute I get home I can go into a small space I set up for myself and do the breathing. Then I can face the drama in my house in a calmer way.” — Ebony, age 16, Humanities Prep High School

THE LINEAGE MODEL

Lineage Project’s unique teaching model fuses meditation, contemplative group discussion, and mindful movement like yoga and Tai Chi. We deliver this model to young people who are justice-involved, homeless, in school and suspended from school, or otherwise vulnerable. We also provide trainings and consultations for teachers and staff, helping to build trauma-conscious, culturally responsive, and mindful organizations.

Justice

Homeless

Schools

Community

Justice

Justice

Lineage Project delivers programs to youth and staff at every point in the justice system. We work inside secure detention facilities, non-secure detention and placement sites, alternative-to-incarceration programs, and with youth on probation. We also create and manage a comprehensive arts and mindfulness after-school program at Horizon Juvenile Center (secure detention).

Research published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology shows that our program at an alternative-to-incarceration site helped justice-involved young men manage their anger, reduce reactivity, and cope with high levels of stress and anxiety—potentially reducing the likelihood of justice system re-involvement. Read the full article here.

"Teaching kids about mindfulness and breathing techniques has helped them regulate their emotions. Oftentimes aggression and poor decision-making are the result of poor impulse control. The Lineage instructors are very knowledgeable about our population and do an excellent job engaging the youth. Exposing kids and staff in our system helps create a safer environment and, hopefully, long lasting changes in the young people's ability to control their futures."— Sandra Bryce, former Director, Ella McQueen Reception Center (state-run intake center)

“When I was upstate in detention, I didn’t have no patience. I just wanted to be out. But then when I was out, it was like I was still locked up, my mind was still locked up.” — Youth participant, Horizon (secure detention center)

Homeless

Homeless

Lineage Project delivers programs to children and teens in a family homeless shelter. We also reach young people living in transitional housing through our work in high-need public schools. Our program provides a safe space with caring adult role models, developing the resilience of young people facing myriad challenges such as trauma and family instability.

“It’s almost like I tapped into some part of my mind that I didn’t know I had. That’s what I like about yoga. That’s what yoga does for me.” — Youth participant, Homes for the Homeless shelter

Schools

Schools

Lineage Project delivers programs throughout the NYC school system, including high-need public schools, and District 88 sites for suspended students. We strive to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline by offering alternative models of behavior and consciousness for students, teachers, and staff, which work to reduce suspension and dropout rates, and course failures. Our classes are offered as for-credit school courses and in after-school programs.

“Ever since I’ve done yoga, my grades went up because I know how to sit in class and just take it all in.” — Student, Humanities Prep High School

“My students are often visibly stressed out at school and are very easily frustrated. They have a hard time sitting in class and concentrating on work. However, I notice that when given the time to practice yoga, they become much calmer and more able to focus for longer durations of time. They are able to feel, for a while, as the free children many of them never got to be.”— Giancinta Frisillo, Site Supervisor, DOE District 88 Alternative Learning Center for students in suspension

community

community

We work in collaboration with city, state, and community-based organizations throughout the five NYC boroughs to deliver mindfulness to young people in need. We also offer professional trainings to teachers, staff, and clinicians who work with vulnerable youth. Contact us if your agency would like to integrate mindfulness and yoga into your programming or organizational operations.

Our program evaluation surveys show that 87% of our program participants become more aware of their body, 91% become more aware of their thoughts, 84% feel calmer and more relaxed, and 74% discover better ways to manage stress.

“As a transfer school for previously disengaged students who are now over-age and under-credited for high school, the social and emotional support the Lineage program provides is so important. I believe it is one of the main contributing factors to the success of our students and our school.”— Principal Paul Rotondo, Cascades High School

"I’ve learned how to be self-confident and put all my effort into everything I do. I’ve learned that everyone around us can be inspiring, and that everyone has problems in life—but we can overcome them. Thank you for teaching me how to be independent, how to trust myself in everything I do, and how to always get up and just keep moving forward whenever I fail.”– Jocelyn, age 11, participant at Little Sisters of the Assumption, Harlem

Donate

Donate

Please consider donating to Lineage Project, a nonprofit 501(c)3.Click to make a tax-deductible, secure donation by credit card.